ABOUT THIS EPISODE:In this episode, host Megan Cole talks to Jess Housty. Jess is the author of Crushed Wild Mint, which is a finalist for the 2024 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the 2024 Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award. In their conversation, Jess talks about prayer and poetry, they also talks about their role as an herbalist and how that inspires them creatively.

Visit BC and Yukon Book Prizes: bcyukonbookprizes.com/

About Crushed Wild Mint: https://bcyukonbookprizes.com/project/crushed-wild-mint/

ABOUT JESS HOUSTY:Jess Housty (‘Cúagilákv) is a parent, writer and grassroots activist with Heiltsuk (Indigenous) and mixed settler ancestry. They serve their community as an herbalist and land-based educator alongside broader work in the non-profit and philanthropic sectors. They are inspired and guided by relationships with the homelands, their extended family and their non-human kin, and they are committed to raising their children in a similar framework of kinship and land love. They reside and thrive in their unceded ancestral territory in the community of Bella Bella, BC.

ABOUT MEGAN COLE:Megan Cole the Director of Programming and Communications for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes. She is also a writer based on the territory of the Tla'amin Nation. Megan writes creative nonfiction and has had essays published in Chatelaine, This Magazine, The Puritan, Untethered, and more. She has her MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of King's College and is working her first book. Find out more about Megan at megancolewriter.com

ABOUT THE PODCAST:Writing the Coast is recorded and produced on the territory of the Tla'amin Nation. As a settler on these lands, Megan Cole finds opportunities to learn and listen to the stories from those whose land was stolen.

Writing the Coast is a recorded series of conversations, readings, and insights into the work of the writers, illustrators, and creators whose books are nominated for the annual BC and Yukon Book Prizes. We'll also check in on people in the writing community who are supporting books, writers and readers every day. The podcast is produced and hosted by Megan Cole.